What's the appeal of MOP?

[Tailsfan1990 1]

I have a question for all you bronies, what is the appeal of my little pony. I don't understand it and that's why I made an account so could you try to tell me the appeal.

[FlitterFlutter 1,595]

Why does anyone like anything? It has a fun community to be around. Good characters, nice animation, and memes!! What more could you want?!?

[CypherHoof 26,483]

There isn't any single reason.

Some people like it because it's well written, while others like it in spite of the flaws they see in the writing

Some people like it because they love the animation style, and again, some in spite of it.

Some people like that it presents a idealized worldview where love and friendship are a force greater than armies, and others hate that and write dark, post-apocalyptic fanfics

Some people like specific ponies and how their characters develop though the series, others dislike change or deny it took place, saying the ponies are never learning anything new.

Some people just like cartoon ponies.

Essentially though, its like the Trek fandom or Adventure Time fandom - it doesn't matter so much WHY fans are fans, than that they have their fanship in common.

[Jeric 46,884]

What's the appeal of MOP? Well, I'll let Cid from Final Fantasy VII explain

That was the best use of mop I've ever seen since the Great Milk Calamity of '92. Mop saved the lives of many paper towels during both the Meteor event and that later event. 

Also, Pony is cute and amusing, with the occasional deeper message. 

[Quantum Pony 40]

Well for me it is a show that reminds me some of the most important aspects of life. 

The main focus of this show is Friendship (which we can tell simply from its name: Friendship is Magic).

For those of us thats a bit older, this might sound like a really trivial topic. Something that we learned in Kindegarden when our teachers tells us to find our lunch partner. 

But I think in the world today, we sometimes forget the important lessons that we were taught so long ago. Sometimes friendship just seems like a relationship where there exists a mutual benefit between two people. A benefits from B and vice versa. Sometimes we assign the term 'friend' to people we, on rare occasions,  watch Game of Thrones with or say 'Hi' to in your school corridor, but never really had any lengthy or meaningful conversation. This kind of blurrs the boundary between 'friend' and 'acquaintance'. But nevertheless, sometimes it feels like there is nothing inherently beautiful in friendship. (In contrast to , say, Love)

There are times in life that we may feel betrayed or hurt by friends and decides to break our friendship (or simply never talk to them again). Sometimes we are just so fixated on the idea that the world is imperfect, that the world is grey and not black or white. That there is no 'the right thing to do' or the 'wrong thing to do'. That it is always 'more complicated than that'.  

But My Little Pony seems to remind us the importance of Friendship, at a fundamental and beautiful level. Here's a few things I learned from My Little Pony: 

• To never give up on your hopes and dreams no matter how hard it is.
  • "A stick-to-it-ive-ness. A never give up, can-do attitude that's the mark of a real winner! -Rainbow Dash" This sounds like something that even a fortune cookie can convey. But when you actually delve into the show, followed the character developments in the main characters as well as side characters, there are many cases where achieving their goals takes more than just a few episodes or songs. That they went through hardship and failures before succeeding in the end. Just like in real life. That sometimes just because others say 'your not smart enough to do that' doesn't mean you can't do it. It taught me the most important thing to achieve your goals is: Perseverance.  And the amount of motivation I get from this show far exceeds any teacher or professor. 
• It taught me not to give up on any friendships. 
  • "Friendship isn't always easy, but there's no doubt it's worth fighting for! - Twilight Sparkle". Sometimes your friends might wrong you or do something unbelievably mean to you. I just tell myself what Twilight Sparkle would do in such situtations and try to let by gones be by gones. This may sound easy but there are times where it really isn't. 
• It taught me there is so much more to friendships than meets the eye. 
  • Due to the more 'specialized' topics that I study, it is indeed true that one can be very successful academically just by having very few friends within the same specialized field. But this show taught me making friends is more than just (in this case) a mutal exchange of knowledge or help on the same subject. That there is beauty with simply making friends  . This may sound trivial but for me it is actually quite difficult to find 'beauty' in things. I often find 'beauty' in only the most fundamental aspects of our world. I think love between family is beautiful. I think the mathematical equations that describes the universe is beautiful. And now by watching MLP, I think friendship is just as fundamentally beautiful.  

Sure there are many other cartoons like He-Man, Courage the Cowardly dog, Star Vs the Forces of Evil, PowerPuff Girls etc that conveys this message as well. But none seems to convey it as clearly and accurately as MLP. And also the quality of the episodes in MLP is beyond excellent and only seems to be getting better with every season! 

 

Edited September 25, 2017 by Quantum Pony
Posted the previous version too hastily. This one should sound a bit clearer :D

[DonMaguz 1,023]

25 minutes ago, Tailsfan1990 said:

I have a question for all you bronies, what is the appeal of my little pony. I don't understand it and that's why I made an account so could you try to tell me the appeal.

If you have tried watching the show and didn't like it, there's not much to say to change your mind about it. Now, if you haven't tried watching it, I would definitely recommend you to try and form your own opinion about the show.

I have always enjoyed cartoon shows and started watching MLP out of curiosity and boredom. What hooked me was the light atmosphere around it and the diversity of characters. Everything after the hook is just enjoyment and appreciation from a fan POV.

[Tailsfan1990 1]

13 minutes ago, Quantum Pony said:

Well for me it is a show that reminds me some of the most important aspects of life. 

The main focus of this show is Friendship (which we can tell simply from its name: Friendship is Magic).

For those of us that are a bit older, this might sound like a really trivial topic. Something that we learned in Kindegarden when our teachers tells us to find our desk mate. 

But I think in the world today, we sometimes forget the important lessons that we were taught so long ago. Sometimes friendship just seems like a relationship where there exists a mutual benefit between two people. A benefits from B and vice versa. Sometimes we assign the term 'friend' to people we occassionaly watch Game of Thrones with or say 'Hi' to in your school corridor. This kind of blurrs the boundary between 'friend' and 'acquaintance'. But nevertheless, sometimes it feels like there is nothing inherently beautiful in friendship. 

There are times in life that we may feel betrayed or hurt by friends and decides to break our friendship (or simply never talk to them again). Sometimes we are just so fixated on the idea that the world is imperfect, that the world is grey and not black or white. 

But My Little Pony seems to remind us the importance of these 'little things' and how meaningful they actually are. Here are a few things it taught me and really gets me through in life: 

• It taught me never to give up on your hopes and dreams no matter how hard the journey is:
  •  This sounds like something that even a fortune cookie can convey, but when you actually follow the show and look at the character developments, there are many cases where achieving their goals takes more than just a few episodes or songs. 
• It taught me to forgive and anyone (who doesn't do irreparable damage).
  • Sometimes your friends might wrong you or do something unbelievably mean to you. I just tell myself what Twilight Sparkle would do in such situtations and try to let by gones be by gones.
• It taught me the value of friendship. 

Sure there are many other cartoons like He-Man, Courage the Cowardly dog, Star Vs the Forces of Evil, PowerPuff Girls etc that conveys this message as well. But none seems to convey it as clearly and accurately as MLP. And also the quality of the episodes in MLP is beyond excellent and only seems to be getting better with every season! 

 

I see your point but I personally can't stand to watch an episode. A friend of mine and I watch 5 episodes ironically and we didn't have any care for the characters or plot by the end. To me there is little appeal mostly because I can't take it seriously most of the time and the episodes are very predictable. Side note my friend and I both agreed that pinky pie's voice is the most horrible thing to roam this earth.

 

[Quantum Pony 40]

8 minutes ago, Tailsfan1990 said:

I see your point but I personally can't stand to watch an episode. A friend of mine and I watch 5 episodes ironically and we didn't have any care for the characters or plot by the end. To me there is little appeal mostly because I can't take it seriously most of the time and the episodes are very predictable. Side note my friend and I both agreed that pinky pie's voice is the most horrible thing to roam this earth.

I know exactly how you feel  . 

Watching a few episodes certainly exposes you to what MLP is really about. Although you can really appreciate it when you try not to think too much while watching  . I know that is actually quite a difficult thing to do.

Predicatability is really a relative thing. As a super fan of TV, I pretty much watched the entire spectrum of TV series, from Big Bang Theory to Supernatural, from Winx Club and MLP to American Horror Story and Penny dreadful. But sometimes it's really easy to slip into thinking what is going to happen (we always try to guess who the real villain is in Flash/Arrow and often looked at 'theories' online, then argue how ludicrous the ending was  ). But at the end of the day, thinking too much kinda takes the fun away from things. 

So one thing I try to do (and recommends) is to find your  'innerchild' . The way you felt when your're watching some of your childhood shows such as Dexter's laboratory or Samurai Jack or Road Runner. Just feeling care-free and delve into the plot without thinking about its feasibility or whats gonna happen too much =]. 

The first two seasons do adhere to the more 'classical cartoon plots' and hence more predictable. But if you look at a few episodes from latter seasons (such as season 5 and later) you might be surprised at some of the endings! (At least I was like "What the...o.o" in several occasions!). And it may take more than 5 episodes to really care for the characters . (took me about a season or two to really see Twilight and Rainbowdash as a role model). And although Pinkie Pie does seem quite odd and hard to like at first (at least to me), you do get use to her whimsical nature eventually. Then you realize shes a really fun and bizzarly interesting pony! 

 

Since you are interested enough to find out why people are interested in MLP, I think once you really delve into the show, you would love it (or at least think 'welllll.... I guess this isn't too bad and I understand why others enjoys it so much  '). 

 

I also edited my previous answer so it sounds more coherent and hopefully more convincing  . 

[Star Petal 215]

The same reason why anyone likes anything.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,202]

Mop's contain lovable character, a positive message, great production values, brightly colored animation, and so much more. My Little Pony, well, it's a decent cleaning product at least. Does well on floors.

[Adderbane 121]

 

1 hour ago, Tailsfan1990 said:

I see your point but I personally can't stand to watch an episode. A friend of mine and I watch 5 episodes ironically and we didn't have any care for the characters or plot by the end. To me there is little appeal mostly because I can't take it seriously most of the time and the episodes are very predictable. Side note my friend and I both agreed that pinky pie's voice is the most horrible thing to roam this earth.

 

MLP is not for everyone.  I can certainly understand why someone would watch it and have a response of "meh".  In fact, that was me in 2012 when I watched the first three episodes.  They were better written than I expected, the characters were well-rounded, and the animation was exceptionally well done.  But ultimately, while I appreciated the quality, I felt no real draw to watch the rest.

Now, several years later, I found that the lighter, happier tone much more attractive in contrast to a lot of the "darker and edgier" stuff that seems to be popular now.  I've got enough stress in real life, so the low-drama stories are rather refreshing.  That, combined with an extremely prolific fandom gives plenty of great content to enjoy (seriously, the fandom is probably half the appeal of the show; there's some truly INCREDIBLE works out there).

In regards to the show itself, I don't know which episodes you watched (and I'm not sure what watching them "ironically" means, but I doubt it is the kind of open mindedness required to actually find you enjoy the show), but the first season is very predictable and doesn't do much innovating (aside from having far more character development and nuance than other children's cartoons).  Season Two is where it really picked up for me, specifically "Lesson Zero", which takes apart the previous season's formulaicness.  There's considerable debate in the fandom on the subject, and it is mostly a matter of opinion, but I feel that the show has improved enormously as time has gone by.

Also, I agree that Pinkie can be really irritating in large doses, but she does have her narrative uses.

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

Because it's good, good stories, good balance of silly with deeper themes, capable of having epic stories, awesome music, fantastic character development.

If you don't like it you don't like it. There is nothing wrong with that and whether or not the show is good is entirely subjective, but I consider it the best show on television. I love it. I am sure there are shows you like that I find absolutely terrible.

 

My Little Pony has this great message of friendship but at the same time it doesn't feel like it is made for 4 year olds, it feels like it respects adults and loves kids, which is what I love in cartoons. That's why this show can have episodes that seem just like a friend helping someone else, but if you look just a little deeper you can see the stakes and the dark implications (referring to a specific episode) the show oozes passion, like for real, everyone clearly gives their all when they write or animate for the show, and I can appreciate that. Characters grow and change, deal with minor problems and at the same time potentially apocalyptic events. It's just a joy to watch.

I suggest you watch

Cutie Mark Chronicles

Hurricane Fluttershy

Lesson Zero

Amending Fences

The Perfect Pear

Sleepless in Ponyville.

 

as some starters, and if you enjoy it, either watch the 2 parters or just binge the series, unless '"watching it ironically" made up your mind, though that's not really open minded.

 

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

Mist of Pandaria was popular because it was a really solidly crafted expansion with tons of casual and hardcore content that also set the bar for mid expansion outdoor content. It surpassed everyone's low expectations of it. 

Wait am I on the wrong site right now?

[Drunkfrank 1,125]

1 minute ago, M'gann M'orzz said:

Mist of Pandaria was popular because it was a really solidly crafted expansion with tons of casual and hardcore content that also set the bar for mid expansion outdoor content. It surpassed everyone's low expectations of it. 

Wait am I on the wrong site right now?

NOOO, I was just coming back to this thread to make a Mists of Pandaria comment

 

[Thrond 3,271]

Putting aside that its best episodes can be very funny and sometimes even emotionally involving, I find the characters relatable, and feel that they have a decent amount of depth. I particularly liked how the earlier seasons built up that depth without really calling attention to it. The character arcs aren't as big a deal as in many other shows, but they do grow over time, and I found that particularly apparent and compelling in the earlier seasons. Aside from that, I just think the general aesthetic has a lot of charm, and I enjoy the cheesy optimistic tone of the show. It's just cute, and when the writing is funny enough, that can make for some really nice lighthearted fun. I personally don't get that much out of the morals, because they're usually stuff I'm already aware of, but every once in a while the show offers up an interesting one. 

Later seasons tried to give the show a little more seriousness and dignity, and all the technical aspects have gotten much better over time, so if you care enough to try them out, you may enjoy them more. Personally, I don't think the seasons after 3 are as good, but many disagree with me. 

Edited September 26, 2017 by AlexanderThrond

[FlareGun45 2,221]

The appeal of the MOP is to clean the floors and stop germs infecting the floor!

EDIT: Oh woopsy-doopsy! Other people beat me to it! XD

Edited September 26, 2017 by MegaSean45

[Steve Piranha 29,496]

11 hours ago, Tailsfan1990 said:

I have a question for all you bronies, what is the appeal of my little pony. I don't understand it and that's why I made an account so could you try to tell me the appeal.

Well, reasons (yes, plural) vary between simple casual channel fishing and going like "Hey, this shit is good", to deeper ones like being the light in times struggling with depression. What exactly has the show to cause such things? Reasons are varied also. Cute, but unexpectedly three dimensional characters, a world with lots of lore to explore, the good messages, relatable situations and characters...... the list goes on and on 

[GrimGrimoire 4,973]

If you can't see the appeal of the show by sitting and watching episodes, then nothing myself or anyone else here says will show it to you. You either like it, or you don't... asking others to explain their enjoyment to you will not suddenly make it all click.

[StrawCherry 1,673]

At least you gave it a fair shot, whether it be ironic or not, and was able to form your own opinion about it. Many of the 'haters' don't bother and just go with the flow.

Like stated before, if you don't like it now – we can't make you like it, no matter what we tell you. But as for my story: I like the style, I like the characters and I like the theme of friendship since it's lacking in my personal life. I think that the show has much more to it than the comedy or whatever makes you dislike it. The stories can get pretty darn deep with a bit more thought to it.

Maybe you should potentially give it another shot without your friend and see if anything changes? I mean, if you bothered to register on here, it means you are at least a bit interested, even if it's just the reason why.

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

3 hours ago, Ryanmahaffe said:

NOOO, I was just coming back to this thread to make a Mists of Pandaria comment

 

Should of done it anyway bro.

[sweetolebob18 728]

On ‎9‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 9:52 AM, Tailsfan1990 said:

I have a question for all you bronies, what is the appeal of my little pony. I don't understand it and that's why I made an account so could you try to tell me the appeal.

There has never been a program everyone liked.  Personally, I STILL can't see how Mighty Morphing Power Rangers made it past S1.  So, you either like it or you don't, but I go with a line from "Sweet, Sweet Haven" (in the Popeye movie)

God must have planned us here.

How else could he stand us here?

[Jeric 46,884]

On 9/25/2017 at 9:52 PM, Ryanmahaffe said:

it feels like it respects adults and loves kid

...

In the years I've been a fan I've yet to find a way at summing up the best attribute of the show as succinctly as that. Legit